There’s one genre and age of music that I’ve never quite got a handle on, and it’s the hard rocking era of bands such as Mötley Crüe. Maybe as an Indie kid of the early 90’s they were just too far removed from the pretentious nonsense of bands I liked such as The Auteurs, but I’ve maintained successful social distancing from similar bands ever since. So quite why I like the new song ‘Motorway’ from Finnish band ‘Standing Crew’ so much is a mystery to me, because it’s sitting slap bang in the centre of that metal genre.
But just take a listen, because whilst it may not win any innovation awards, it’s thumpingly good heavy rock. In fact it’s way better than anything I heard in the 80’s or 90’s - or did I just miss out badly? They’re a 5 piece ‘DIY’ rock band that do everything themselves, from recording, mixing to cover art and videos, and they’ve mostly played in bands together before, other than vocalist Alfred McClaren, who surprisingly has never played in one at all.
‘Motorway’ is written in an ‘old fashioned’ style in many ways, but it just rattles through, with background metronome style strikes providing the momentum, and the vocals particularly convincing - and not suffering from the overly exaggerated drawl that sometimes puts me off similar bands. It’s an undeniably catchy song that stays in your head too, even I’m not quite so sure about it lyrically. Or the artwork.
This is ‘Motorway’:
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